Three Types of Customers
Which one should you target?
Researchers from Harvard did a study on brand loyalty, revealing three types of customers:
Type 1: Non-Switchable
There is essentially nothing you can do … or say, to cause these customers to switch from the product or service they currently use.
Maybe it’s the brand of coffee you drink ... maybe it’s the brand of shoes you wear ... the car you drive ... It doesn’t matter. Just know that you have customer prospects out there that are Non-Switchable. There is nothing you can say or do to cause them to switch …
SO DON’T LET IT DRIVE YOU CRAZY.
Type 2: Switchable
These customers may be won, but only if you say the right thing and keep on saying it until the prospect is finally convinced ... until they finally get around to giving you a try.
When you’re saying the right thing, you’re convincing people who are not yet in the market for your product or service, and now you have to wait until they’re in the market.
Type 3: Switchable for Reasons of Price Alone
The study strongly recommended that you not pursue these customers. If you appeal to these customers, you will likely enjoy initial success, but your position will never be a strong one, because these customers will switch from you just as quickly as they switched to you and for precisely the same reason. These are the Transactional Customers.
You can never hold on to the customer who is switchable for reasons of price alone. Give ‘em a lower price ... BAM! Instant Success! But you can’t hang onto it! WHY? Because there’s nothing in the world, that someone can’t make a little worse and sell a little cheaper.
Therefore, target the Switchable Customer, knowing that you’ll have to have patience and knowing that the longer you say the right thing ... the longer you talk to the customer in the language of the customer about what matters to the customer … the better it’s going to work.